Who pays for "Sick Days" at work?

xix

Time Zone Traveller
Jul 27, 2002
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La la land
I searched but cannot find the info. For Ontario.
SO I am wondering if anyone knows.

Who really pays for Sick Days benefits at work when you call in sick?
The Employer or Employee?

If the employee pays into it shouldn't we get our money back if only partial is used through out the year.

Personal days are not paid for.
Vacation is paid by the employee as far as I know.

Thanks for the help.
 

AssTastic

I’m your Huckleberry
Jul 2, 2002
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You would have to look at the HR Policy about accruals and balances since it may be different than other places. Vacation can be different because there are places that let you carry it over year after year...or even cash it out. Vacation is ‘typically’ earned as you work (ex. 1.5 days per month of service) where sick time is ‘typically’ granted (ex. 5 sick days a year given out on Jan 1)
 

Blade

Active member
Nov 20, 2001
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I searched but cannot find the info. For Ontario.
SO I am wondering if anyone knows.

Who really pays for Sick Days benefits at work when you call in sick?
The Employer or Employee?

If the employee pays into it shouldn't we get our money back if only partial is used through out the year.

Personal days are not paid for.
Vacation is paid by the employee as far as I know.

Thanks for the help.
Trying to understand your question.

For the employees to pay for sick days, sounds like you are assuming they are funding a sick day pool via deductions on each pay cheque. Then when the employee actually takes a day off, they are paid from that pool. At the end of the year, there may be funds leftover.

Is that what you are assuming? To be honest I have never heard of that.

The most common policy on sick days is : there is an annual limit you can take, employer pays you full wages for the day. 3 consecutive days requires a doctors note. After a longer absence, long term disability may come into play.

Once you hit your annual limit, the next option is unpaid or take a vacation day/personal day.
 

Jenesis

Fabulously Full Figured
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Jul 14, 2020
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This question makes no sense.... the employer pays for everything....
Some take out a portion in "dues" out of your cheque.

That is what I assume he is talking about.

I have only known a couple warehouses run like that, that my dad worked at. He didn't stay long. Overall bad working conditions but he also felt this was a money grab as they never got non-used portions back.

These were also first generation owed businesses so maybe they just didn't know better and my dad is too much of a passive and experienced guy that he just moved on.
 

xix

Time Zone Traveller
Jul 27, 2002
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You would have to look at the HR Policy about accruals and balances since it may be different than other places. Vacation can be different because there are places that let you carry it over year after year...or even cash it out. Vacation is ‘typically’ earned as you work (ex. 1.5 days per month of service) where sick time is ‘typically’ granted (ex. 5 sick days a year given out on Jan 1)
I will look in the manual about this Accruals.
Our sick days are carried over for lifetime. For example after 3 years with no sick days I would get 15 sick days. A friend of mine at another company has the same policy for lifetime for sick days.

The 21 year old kid at work already took 4 sick days in 5 months, boss says to him "I hope you feel better".
I take 2 sick days and boss says to me each time " why you sick yesterday?"

I am calling in sick this summer for sure.
 
Last edited:

xix

Time Zone Traveller
Jul 27, 2002
4,175
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La la land
Trying to understand your question.

For the employees to pay for sick days, sounds like you are assuming they are funding a sick day pool via deductions on each pay cheque. Then when the employee actually takes a day off, they are paid from that pool. At the end of the year, there may be funds leftover.

Is that what you are assuming? To be honest I have never heard of that.
Like some others said depends on company.
 

xix

Time Zone Traveller
Jul 27, 2002
4,175
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La la land
This question makes no sense.... the employer pays for everything....
Every company I been to, I paid into my vacation. Some paid me out if I didn't take it by a certain time. Other companies don't pay you out at all, and you loose the money.
 

xix

Time Zone Traveller
Jul 27, 2002
4,175
1,407
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La la land
Some take out a portion in "dues" out of your cheque.

That is what I assume he is talking about.

I have only known a couple warehouses run like that, that my dad worked at. He didn't stay long. Overall bad working conditions but he also felt this was a money grab as they never got non-used portions back.

These were also first generation owed businesses so maybe they just didn't know better and my dad is too much of a passive and experienced guy that he just moved on.
Your dad was smart to walk out. Bosses / owners know what they are doing because the lawyers helped them out.

I was a in a similar situation. After we got bought out from someone else, the company name got switched. They told us everything is the same, but the boss gave us a new employee manual. Only office people were allowed sick days and not floor people. One of the floor guys called in sick and never got paid he told us, we looked into it and bitched to HQ, we skipped the boss, and HQ took them 4 months to bring it back. The boss switched the policy, just to piss the floor people off. He had a big Ego, plus many other issues, we realized that after he left 6 months later. And we got our sick days back.
 

ActionJ

Active member
Jan 17, 2004
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I'm on salary. I get the same amount paid every 2 weeks regardless if I take sick days within that pay period or not. A 'true' sick days rarely happens. Even if I call in sick (cant go to the office), I logged in from home and still do my work.
 

superstar_88

The Chiseler
Jan 4, 2008
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This is a very deep question. On par with the meaning of life.
 

Mencken

Well-known member
Oct 24, 2005
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You get paid by the company or organization you work for. If you get paid when you are not there then they are paying for it.
 

clules

Member
Jul 6, 2002
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The Service Ontario site states that employees are allowed to take "unpaid" sick days. However most companies offer a limited number of paid sick days as part of the "contract" between the employee and the employer. However some jobs may not have a paid sick day allowance, the employee is not paid when they call in sick, this usually applies to people who get paid by the hour.
 

Mr.lover

Well-known member
Sep 5, 2001
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I will look in the manual about this Accruals.
Our sick days are carried over for lifetime. For example after 3 years with no sick days I would get 15 sick days. A friend of mine at another company has the same policy for lifetime for sick days.

The 21 year old kid at work already took 4 sick days in 5 months, boss says to him "I hope you feel better".
I take 2 sick days and boss says to me each time " why you sick yesterday?"

I am calling in sick this summer for sure.
That is pretty generous must be government job. Most private companies allow the 5 days per calendar yr, no carryover allowed.
 

james t kirk

Well-known member
Aug 17, 2001
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1. Vacation pay is paid for by the employer. The law in Ontario requires employers to pay a minimum of 4% of gross salary to an employee as vacation pay. That translates to 2 weeks per year of paid vacation. Money is accumulated in a vacation bank of sorts at a rate of 4 percent of gross as you work. This is the law.

What many people do not understand is that in order to receive 2 weeks paid vacation, you need to have worked a full year first. For example, many people start a job in March, figure that they are entitled to 2 weeks paid vacation and will want to take 2 weeks vacation in July of the same year and they figure that they should be paid in full "because I get 2 weeks paid vacation per year". Not quite. You need to work a year first. (They always figure you're trying to fuck them when you tell them that.) You can only receive paid vacation that is at most equal to what you have accumulated in your vacation bank. If you start in March, by July you will have only accumulated maybe 2.5 days of paid vacation time.

But it is the employer who is putting that money in there, not the employee. Nor does the employee pay "dues" toward vacation time.

2. Sick days are not required to be paid by the employer to employees who are paid by the hour.

The Wynne liberals passed legislation requiring employers to pay (IIRC) employees 3 personal days per year which could be used as sick time or if you needed to take a day off to see a doctor, or whatever, however, that legislation was repealed by the Ford tories a while back.

That said, many employers will as part of their benefits package offer employees a number of sick days and or personal days per year. Also, various collective agreements will have contract items with respect to the same.

With salaried individuals, I.e. People who receive the same cheque every 2 weeks regardless of the number of hours worked, regardless of overtime, they can take a sick day if they are sick and still be paid. HOWEVER, usually in the employment contract, there will be a clause limiting the number of sick days to a maximum of 5 days per year, with no more than 3 days in a row. Any time required after that requires one to use accumulated vacation time. If your vacation bank is empty, you don't get paid.

In all of the above, it is the employer who pays for the sick time until such time as you delve into your vacation bank (because that is money you have earned.)

I've never heard of employees paying dues toward sick days. If that was the case for me, I'd rather not pay the due with the agreement that if I took a day off sick, I would not be paid.
 
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james t kirk

Well-known member
Aug 17, 2001
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Every company I been to, I paid into my vacation. Some paid me out if I didn't take it by a certain time. Other companies don't pay you out at all, and you loose the money.
Either you don't understand the law with respect to vacation time or you have been working for unscrupulous companies.
 

Samranchoi

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Jan 11, 2014
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The company I work for allows 3 paid sick days per year as well as 3 personal days per year. The personal days can be used at any time with no questions asked. The only stipulation for using a personal day(s) is that they cannot be used in conjunction with your vacation days and cannot be carried forward to the following year. There is no cost to the employee for these benefits. The company also provide 3 weeks vacation to the employees and after 3 years service it increases to 4 weeks. Based upon the companies I have worked for, the above is generous.
 
Ashley Madison
Toronto Escorts